click to enlarge

To be fair, the Rutland City treasurer never actually makes accusations. She just suggests things. Like, real nutty things.

The latest? That the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank put the city of Rutland on its internal "watch list" in June to screw with Wilton's campaign for state treasurer.

Quite improbably, the bond bank became a bit of a political football earlier this week when Wilton's opponent, State Treasurer Beth Pearce, noted in a debate on WDEV's The Mark Johnson Show that — unbeknownst to Wilton — Rutland had recently earned a place on the bank's "watch list" due to concerns about its unfunded pension liability. Pearce's fellow Democrat, Gov. Peter Shumlin, followed suit Wednesday when asked at a Burlington Free Press debate about the treasurer's race — bashing Wilton for Rutland's inclusion on the list.

That didn't sit well with the Rutland Republican.

Each Friday here at Off Message headquarters, we bring you the week's winners and losers in Vermont news and politics. Here they are for the week of Friday, Oct. 26:

Winners:

The Vermont Municipal Bond Bank — The little-known bonding backwater became the topic of the week after Democratic State Treasurer Beth Pearce turned its internal "watch list" into a campaign hit against her Republican opponent, Rutland City Treasurer Wendy Wilton. Man, I hope I never get on their shit list.

Vince Illuzzi and Doug Hoffer —Weasely Vermont politicians, particularly Democrats, have taken to the line that while they hate on Citizens United, there's nothing they can legally do to stop super PACs from spending on their behalf. But Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Franklin), the Republican candidate for state auditor, has proved them wrong: He told the press he wished the conservative Vermonters First wouldn't back his candidacy and, lo and behold, they stopped! His Democratic opponent, Doug Hoffer, also deserves praise for his early and unequivocal denunciation of super PACs. Better than most Dems.

Champlain College — Sure, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Robert Stiller lost a fortune — and his board chairmanship — when the coffee stock tanked last May, but dude still apparently has enough cash to give $10 million of it to Champlain College. How many K-Cups would that buy you?

Circling Wagons — The Democratic political establishment came out in full force this week for Pearce's campaign, after the embattled state treasurer finally started swinging. A gaggle of Democratic senators held a Statehouse press conference Tuesday bashing Wilton. Gov. Peter Shumlin hit Wilton in his own gubernatorial debate, and the gov's secretary of administration, Jeb Spaulding, helped a liberal super PAC put a radio ad on-air backing Pearce. Good timing or too little too late?

Losers after the jump...

click to enlarge

Take Gov. Peter Shumlin and his administration. Asked last week about the impact of super PACs on Vermont politics, the governor said, "I really feel strongly that candidates should raise and spend money and advocate for their own candidacy."

Was he disappointed that the liberal super PAC, Priorities PAC, has failed thus far to keep up in fundraising with the conservative super PAC, Vermonters First?

"I'll be honest with you. I wish all the PACs would dry up and go away," he said, speaking after a Winooski press conference. "In an ideal world, that's how we would do democracy in Vermont."

But just days later, Shumlin's own secretary of administration, Jeb Spaulding, was raising money for and recording a radio ad for the liberal super PAC. And according to Spaulding, he got the idea to collaborate with Priorities PAC from Shumlin's own campaign manager, Alex MacLean.

Vermont is one of just three states — the other two are Idaho and Michigan — that don't require statewide candidates to reveal where their money's coming from and how it's invested.

Why should we care? Galloway tells us:

Disclosure laws exist to prevent personal financial interests and potential conflicts of interest from having an impact on the way legislation is shaped and the way government operates.

Because Vermont has no financial disclosure requirements, we don't know the extent of candidates' connections to business interests and whether politicians have used the power of political office for personal gain.

Be sure to check out the story.

And while you're hangin' out at Digger, take a gander at Nat Rudarakanchana's piece looking at ongoing negotiations between the state and Hewlett Packard over the Department of Motor Vehicles' piece-of-crap IT system. Rudarakanchana reports that the state could be looking at a fatty refund check sometime soon.

The attorney general's office is suing VerMints for $60,000, claiming the breath mint company violated a consumer protection law and mislabeled its tins to falsely promote its product as Vermont-made.

That leaves a bad taste in the mouth of CEO Gary Rinkus, who calls the lawsuit unnecessarily harsh treatment from the AG's office for what Rinkus believes was an honest mistake. 

The complaint says that language such as "Vermont's All Natural Mints" was — "and continues to be" — an "unfair and deceptive trade practice" that violated the state's Consumer Protection Law. The case also calls out the company's name for sounding too similar to "Vermont." VerMints are manufactured in a Canadian plant, and most of its ingredients don't originate in Vermont. 

Specifically, the complaint sites Consumer Protection Rule 120, which since January 2006 has governed claims of Vermont origin. Under the rule, a product can only be called "a Vermont product" if the company is based in Vermont and 75 percent of its ingredients come from Vermont. 

Dozens of political action committees — and two super PACs — filed mandatory fundraising reports with the Vermont Secretary of State's Office on October 15.

But not the Committee For Justice and Fairness — the super PAC whose $194,000 in advertising helped Attorney General Bill Sorrell beat back a primary challenge from Democrat T.J. Donovan this summer.

The D.C.-based super PAC did file its quarterly report with the Federal Election Commission this month, confirming that its funding came solely from the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) — in two payments of $100,000 each — and went almost entirely to support Sorrell's bid for an eighth term in office.

According to Will Senning of the secretary of state's office, the super PAC is required by law to file that portion of its federal disclosure form that relates to spending in Vermont elections — in this case, almost all of it. But Senning said that as of Wednesday, his office had received nothing.

In this week's Tech Jam-celebrating issue of Seven Days, now available on your newsstands and your Internets... 

• Is it necessarily a bad thing when a locally-owned, homegrown tech company sells to an out-of-state corporation?
• Burlington Police had an expensive, ineffective computer system for tracking crime. So Chief Mike Schirling coded a better platform himself.
• Speaking of coding, this blogger took part in a hackathon for the good of Vermont over the weekend — sleep be damned.
• Find out how the three sons of Rich Tarrant, Sr. bagged the online grocery business with MyWebGrocer.
• High-tech map making is a big deal for governments, nonprofits and corporations.
• In non-techie news, punk rocker, author and activist Henry Rollins is taking his "Capitalism" talk to Montpelier this Friday. (Look for a longer Q&A with Rollins on this blog soon.)
• And in this week's Fair Game, State Treasurer Beth Pearce finally fights back against challenger Wendy Wilton's negativity — and lands a few blows.

CLAIM: "If [the state treasurer’s website] was so wonderful, why do we have a D minus in transparency from the U.S. PIRG? That is unacceptable in this information age." 
— Republican candidate for state treasurer Wendy Wilton, WCAX-TV debate, October 7

FACTS: Transparency has been Wilton’s favorite cudgel in the state treasurer’s race. The Rutland city treasurer accuses Democratic State Treasurer Beth Pearce of failing to present the state’s budget in a “checkbook” format that Vermonters can understand. She points to a March study from U.S. PIRG, a national consumer advocacy organization, that gave the state a failing grade for financial transparency as proof that Pearce hasn’t provided the public with the kind of easy-to-grasp graphics and explanations that would make the state’s finances more transparent to average Vermonters. 

Ever wondered why industrial wind power is running into so much heavy turbulence in Vermont? Anyone who's never gotten a close look at just how large those turbines are may want to head into downtown Burlington tomorrow morning starting at 3 a.m. That's when the first wave of turbine blades bound for Georgia Mountain, the 10-megawatt wind project in Milton and Georgia, roll out of the Burlington railyard, up Battery Street then attempt to make the right turn up Main Street.

"Attempt" is the operative word. According to Burlington Public Works Director Steve Goodkind, who was in the train yard Tuesday morning, it remains to be seen whether each of the 163-foot blades (not including the size of the extended cab truck and rear trailer) will be able to corner the turn without taking out trees, poles and other roadside hazards. "Three trees, two trees, one tree — we're not really sure how many will have to go."

There was no giant check, but Champlain College announced the largest single donation in the school's 134-year history on Monday.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Robert Stiller, through his Stiller Family Foundation, is sinking a cool $10 million into Champlain's business school, which will be renamed the Robert P. Stiller School of Business.

Stiller (pictured with Champlain President David Finney) wasn't there to announce the contribution in the packed lobby of the S.D. Ireland Family Center for Global Business and Technology. But he apparently will be on campus November 30 for a "major event" celebrating his largesse, Finney told reporters.